Bedford Borough Council welcomes new River Festival sponsor
Bedford Borough Council is delighted to announce Gallagher Developments as the latest sponsor of Bedford River Festival 2022.
10 Apr 2022
Wera Hobhouse MP urges government to incentivise solar power
29 Feb 2024
Luke Allan announced as Lib Dem Candidate for Settle and Penyghent
Candidate announcement from Luke Allan, Liberal Democrat Candidate for Settle and Penyghent:
LA
9 Apr 2022
Could you shape Chelmsford’s cultural future?
Culture Chelmsford, an independent charity supporting arts and culture in the city, is looking for new trustees. The charity is helping to grow the cultural scene in Chelmsford, and you could join them.
9 Apr 2022
Going electric
The move to electric vehicles will accelerate over the next couple of decades as it becomes ever more difficult and expensive to run petrol cars. This will lead to new problems and significant changes to our roads and streets.
9 Apr 2022
Year of Green - The Future of Energy has to be Green
We have known for a long time that humanity's choices in the way we live our lives is destroying our planet and our children's futures. But we have failed to act. In particular, we have failed to act on the need to shift and end our reliance on fossil fuels and that failure lies firmly at the feet of politicians across the globe. I recognise that the shift away from fossils is not an easy one, especially for those in developing countries, so my comments in this article are primarily targeted at western political leaders and particularly successive UK governments who are in a far better position to act and yet have failed to do so.
ZF
9 Apr 2022
Book Review: The Avoidable War by Kevin Rudd
As the title of the book suggests, the author believes meeting jaw to jaw would be far better than catastrophic conflict and war between the US and China. He also lays out in painstaking detail no less than 10 different scenarios, as a "cautionary guide" to policy makers navigating the dangerous waters in the decade ahead.
ME
9 Apr 2022
Wera Hobhouse, Liberal Democrat MP for Bath and spokesperson for Energy Security and Net Zero, called on the government to provide incentives for energy providers to develop solar power in the UK.
Mrs Hobhouse slammed the government for falling behind on meeting the UK’s renewable targets for solar energy capacity. The government plans to deploy 70 GW of solar power across the country by 2035. However, as of 2022, the UK had only installed 14.3 GW of solar pv.
Following a visit to a rooftop solar system installed by Bath & West Community Energy (BWCE) at Beechen Cliff School last year, Wera Hobhouse is keen to encourage the development of similar solar projects across Bath. The solar system is predicted to significantly cut the school’s fuel costs and reduce their carbon emissions by 52 tonnes a year.
In the House of Commons on the 27th February, the Bath MP noted that the UK is lagging behind the rest of the world in renewable energy investment, she urged the government to offer incentives to energy providers to improve solar capacity.
However, Andrew Bowie, Parliamentary Under Secretary for Energy Security and Net Zero, ignored Hobhouse’s proposals, failing to describe the ways in which the government could incentivise solar energy. Instead, Bowie said that the government’s Solar Taskforce would publish recommendations for solar power and reiterated the government’s target to deploy 70 GW by 2035.
Wera Hobhouse, Liberal Democrat MP for Bath and spokesperson for Energy Security and Net Zero, commented:
“The Conservatives are falling dangerously behind on meeting our targets for renewable energy production. It is no good the government setting an ambitious 70 GW solar target if they are nowhere near reaching it.
“It is clear that they have no plan to get us back on track to reach Net Zero. Evidently, they are more than happy to dismiss perfectly good proposals like incentivising solar power. That is why I am so proud that Bath is home to many community energy projects like the solar system at Beechen Cliff School, so that we can lead the way in renewables.”
“It is not just our climate targets harmed by the Conservatives’ delay. Families in Bath and across the country are struggling to pay soaring energy bills which investment in renewables could curb. That is why we Liberal Democrats would build significantly more renewable energy, aiming to generate 80% of our electricity from renewables by 2030.”
Peter Capener, Managing Director of Bath & West Community Energy said:
“Our work with schools is really demonstrating the value of community energy in both addressing the climate crisis and reducing fuel bills. Rooftop solar installed last year has already saved local schools a combined total of £134,209 and has reduced carbon emissions by 224.3 tonnes, which is equivalent to 12,173 journeys from Bath to Edinburgh by train!”
